Mr. Damien Quigley:

There is fantastic potential in the scheme for our family members as well. The reason is that the model is quite the same whether one is in service or not. We have a fund of money which allows for shortfalls to be looked after. We can secure finance for people with ANSAC - Army Naval Services Air Corps - Credit Union. ANSAC was set up by PDFORRA and it has been very good at supporting us. There is potential to bring families on board, as well as ex-PDFORRA members, but we need that level of certainty. Towards the end of last year we were uncertain that this scheme was going to happen. It created a massive panic among our membership. Many people borrowed, jumped ahead of the queue and tried everything they could to get treatment for fear that the scheme would end. We hope that it would not be left to later in the year and that it would be flagged. We are very encouraged to hear the support we have received. It is heartening. We hope a determination is made early in the year to continue the scheme.

As regards family members, the press always gets that the Defence Forces were poorly paid, and the families suffer a great deal because of military service. We think it would be an excellent initiative to give back to family members, but we would need that level of certainty to be able to do so. We are hoping we will be able to get that. Again, I thank Senators Wall and Gallagher for their support over the past few months. It has been very important and we appreciate it.